


Transitional Periods

by zoroaria



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Asexuality, Camilia Noceda has ADHD, F/F, Neurodiversity, Post-Canon, Queer Themes, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26450707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoroaria/pseuds/zoroaria
Summary: Camilia and Eda are bi disasters for each other... But that's not the only way in which they are disasters, of course.Post-canon Camileda fic, with main themes of mental illness, ace/aro spectrum feels and domestic fluff.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne/Camilia Noceda
Comments: 41
Kudos: 169





	1. Permission to Flirt.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! A few things to keep in mind:
> 
> -Literally my first fic ever, please be gentle TwT  
> -Post-canon and written after the end of S1. Disregarding the fake letters from Luz cause I have no clue what's up with that, and assuming that Belos has been thoroughly bonked after some struggling, Camilia knows everything and things are kind of a mess at the Isles.  
> -Big focus on Camileda with some bg Lumity and worldbuilding, but mostly the moms' relationship and struggles with sexuality and mental health stuff.  
> -Translations for the spanish bits at the end!
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy it!

Camilia dropped her bag on the floor with a shrug as soon as she entered, flipping on the lights of the empty house. It had been an exhausting day, and all she could think about was seeing her daughter. After the months she’d spent unable to see her and ceaselessly worrying for her safety, simply seeing Luz smile and ruffling her hair was enough to wipe Camilia’s exhaustion away no matter how draining her day had been. She quickly changed out of her scrubs into something more casual and set off into the woods.

At this point, walking over to the abandoned house which contained the portal to the Boiling Isles had become part of her daily routine. It had been a few months since her daughter had finally come back, after managing to restore the portal, only to beg her for permission to stay in the dangerous magical realm she had been trapped in for months. It had taken days for Camilia to realize just how much this place meant to Luz, and even longer to accept that her daughter had finally found a place she really belonged… and it wasn’t the world she had known her entire life. She never stopped worrying about the dangers that seem so common in the Isles, but after meeting the friends Luz had made and the family she’d become a part of, she could not bring herself to make her sever those ties. A lot had happened in the months since, and she still had nightmares about being unable to help Luz when her life had been truly at risk, but she was immensely happy to be a part of her daughter’s life regardless of what world she was in.

Stepping through the gate into the Demon Realm, Camilia found herself comforted by the now familiar sight of the Owl House and its inhabitants. She could make out the sounds of Luz and her usual group of friends chattering among themselves about one of the strange magical sports she could never fully understand, alongside one additional teenage voice she didn’t recognize. From the corridor which held the door to the human world, she could see her daughter’s teacher Eda, who gave her an adorable smile and waved.

_Wait, did I just think her smile was adorable?_

“Hey hey! Look who it is! Back after a long day?” Eda said as a greeting, letting Luz know her mom had arrived.

“Good morning, Eda.” She replied with a weak smile. Camillia inaudiby groaned realizing her mistake, saying this at 7 P.M. _Great, my brain really is in full exhaustion mode today._ Before she could correct herself, she felt a small body tackle her into a hug as she made her way into the living room.

“Buen día mami! Te extrañé!” Said Luz, mirroring her mother’s mistake with a smile as she hugged her tightly. All thoughts of embarrassment or exhaustion left Camilia’s mind as she wrapped her arms around Luz and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Buen día, corazón.” She said, then turned to the rest of the kids in the house. “And good afternoon, King, Amity, Gus, Willow, and…” Next to Willow was a kid with pink hair and three eyes who she had never met before.

“Oh, right. Mom, this is Boscha! She’s been hanging out with us more lately, but this is the first time she’s come here.” Luz gestured towards Boscha, coaxing her to speak up.

“Right, uh, hello miss Human. Nice to meet you.” The new girl said with a blush, causing Camilia to suppress a chuckle, a courtesy the teenagers in the room didn’t bother with. Somehow all of Luz’s friends seemed to think her family name was The Human, adorably enough. At least this time the kid had dropped the article.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Boscha.” She said with a smile. The tired look in her eyes did not make it any less radiant than usual, and out of the corner of her eye she could notice Eda staring at it for a bit too long. “Anyway, don’t let me distract you from your fun, kids. I’ll just be here talking with Eda”.

After hearing her name, Eda snapped out of the trance she’d been put in by Camilia’s smile and began to move to hide her embarrassed blush. “I’ll prepare some of that ‘coffee’ you humans love so much. You look like you could use some” She said, beginning to boil some water with the help of a fire glyph paper. The house had become a full mix of human and witch technology, and even the magic Eda used had become less common as she learned to use glyphs like Luz did, which helped her deal with the aftereffects of the curse. She still had one eye colored the same gray of her hair, and her magic powers had never fully recovered to what they used to be.

The teenagers’ chatter resumed, and as Camilia made her way to the kitchen she noticed Eda had the same tired look in her eyes she was certain she was displaying. “Had a long day too?” She asked.

“Well, that’s only natural when you’re the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. Everyone needs you for something at a time like this.” Eda struck a self-assured and aggrandizing pose. “Nothing I can’t handle.” There it was: that cocky, dismissive attitude of hers that got on Camilia's nerves every time. Despite having been humbled countless times since meeting Luz, her propensity to dismiss others' worries for her and bite off more than she could chew never really changed. If anything, it might have only been amplified by Luz's similar behavior.

This bothered Camilia more than she was willing to admit, yet instead of reflecting this, her face formed a small fond smile before she could notice. This had been happening a lot with Eda lately and she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she knew she could be more honest when it was really necessary, which meant she was not truly a lost cause. After all, there had been a few times where they'd opened up to each other, especially when it came to Luz. She was certain Eda was a good person, and-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the smell of coffee coming from a cup Eda was holding out in front of her. She had a smile and a raised eyebrow. "You ok there, Cami? Your coffee's ready."

How charming. "Right, thanks." Camilia's face flushed as she took the cup in her hands. How long had she been standing there, lost in her thoughts? This always got worse the more tired she was, and she knew chastising herself for it was pointless, but she still felt embarrassed when she let herself lose focus like that in front of people. Sipping on her coffee helped her thoughts stay grounded, and she used that to help her start a conversation. "You've gotten a lot better at this, you know. This is quite good."

"Oh that? Pshhhht, it's nothing." Eda looked to the side to hide a small blush. "It's not that hard once you get used to it. Took some practice, but in the meanwhile I learned to appreciate the taste a little."

"By that you mean you gave up and started drinking it with half a cup of sugar, right?" Camilia joked, but she was pleasantly surprised to hear Eda admit it took her practice. And she found it adorable that she _had_ practiced to make something only she really enjoyed.

_There's that word again. She's your age, why would you find her adorable?_

"Hey! I'll have you know I only need a quarter cup of sugar to enjoy it now!" Eda answered with a touch of pride. She then took a sip of her own cup and tried desperately to hide her face's reaction to the bitterness, with little success.

This got a chuckle out of Camilia, and Eda could not hide the smile that came on as she rolled her eyes. _She really is adorable, mierda._ How long had it been since she’d had those kinds of thoughts for someone? Crushes and such were not a very common occurrence for Camilia, she’d only had a couple throughout her life, and she had somehow convinced herself she simply would never feel them again after she’d had Luz. _Still, it’s too early to say it’s a crush. Too early and too late_.

Before she could lose herself in her thoughts again, an exclamation from Luz snapped her back to reality. “Oh shoot! I didn’t realize it was this late!”

Her friends muttered something similar, and began to get up and grab their things to head back to their homes. Tomorrow was a school day, after all, and they couldn’t exactly all stay at the Owl House. Though it was very likely Amity would spend the night; After she started dating Luz, it became relatively common for her to spend whole days here and away from her parents.

As Luz headed out to walk her friends home, Camilia waved and said a quick “Tengan cuidado cariño!”, to which Luz replied with an energetic thumbs up and a smile. 

Once the two of them were alone (with King napping on the couch), Camilia asked the question which had been on her mind for a while. “That Boscha girl… Wasn’t she the one who had been really mean with Luz and her friends? Especially Willow?” She tried her best not to sound too worried, since they seemed to be getting along nicely, if a little awkwardly, but it was impossible to fully hide her concern.

Eda put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. After spending so much time around Luz, she'd unconsciously become a lot more comfortable with the kind of physical contact the girl constantly used. “I had my doubts too, but it seems like she’s really made an effort to change for the better. Luz told me she’s been working on her anger for months now, and today was the first time Willow felt comfortable with her coming here with them.”

Camilia found herself leaning into the touch, and she was visibly relieved to hear a little more about the situation. “This space is clearly important for them, so if they chose to invite her here, I’ll trust their judgement.” She added after a brief pause. Eda’s eyes widened in surprise at this. It was true that, after months of living here, the house meant a lot to Luz, and by extension her friends. Still, she remembered how long it had taken her mother to accept her living here. To Eda, hearing her say this showed just how much more comfortable she was now with the entire situation.

At this, she couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. A big grin lit up her face, and she let something escape which she’d been successfully holding back since she’d first met Camilia. “Well, I’d love to make it feel important for you too, gorgeous.” She purred out. 

She immediately recognized her lapse in judgement and froze. Her mouth hung open for a moment and her face could not decide whether to flush or pale, so she looked the most terrified anyone had seen her in recent memory. While Camilia was taken aback and couldn’t come up with a response, Eda quickly began to stammer out an apology. “Wait, shit, no, what I meant is… Fuck. I’m sorry, please forget that. And I was doing so well…” Her brain couldn’t decide whether to chastise her for saying such a cheesy line or for flirting at all, making the process of apologising a lot harder than it should have been. 

“Listen, I… I have been trying not to flirt, because I understand it’s a weird situation and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” She rubbed a hand on her neck and kept alternating between staring at the floor and looking at Camilia in the eyes. “I only fucked up now because you were just so pretty today, I mean-” She slapped herself in the face and made an exaggerated expression, but kept going. “I mean, I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again, and if you feel uncomfortable with it I’ll…”

She was interrupted by a comforting hand on her shoulder and a chuckle. She looked up to see Camilia’s radiant laughter, and couldn’t help but think it was the most beautiful thing she’d seen in years.

“It’s fine, Eda, It’s really fine, Dios mío…” She said between chuckles. All the tension dropped from Eda’s shoulders and she joined in on the laughter, her eyes tearing up from relief. They might have spent an hour just laughing there, or it might have been less than a minute. They couldn’t really tell.

They were snapped out of it by King waking up from his nap and yelling “Argh, I can’t sleep with all this noise! I’m going upstairs.” They looked on as he stomped upstairs in an adorable display of annoyance, and Camilia was the first to speak again after he’d gone.

“I appreciate you trying your best not to make things weird.” She said with one of her signature kind smiles. “And I’m flattered to hear you were struggling so much with not flirting with me.” She added, now with a full grin.

“Of course I struggled! A heart-stopping smile like that is this powerful witches’ only weakness.” Eda once again struck a self-assured pose and grinned, but the effect was lessened by her next remark. “Err, actually, does that mean I have permission to flirt, or should I keep holding back?”

Camilia hid her smile with one hand and sighed. “Well, it couldn’t hurt to have some fun if Luz isn’t around… But I’m warning you, I’m not exactly used to that kind of attention.” She felt embarrassed to admit it, and a small blush rose to her cheeks, but it was only fair to be honest about this kind of thing. After all, she had once again witnessed one of the Owl Lady’s rare emotionally honest moments.

Remembering something, she pushed a bit further before her daughter’s return put a stop to the conversation. “You know, I have the day off tomorrow… And since Luz has school, maybe you could show me around the Isles for a while? I haven’t exactly seen very much of this place, despite it being where both of you live. I understand if you’re busy, though-”

“Don’t you worry! I'd never let myself refuse this rare opportunity for a date with such a beautiful woman!” Eda said with a wink, causing Camilia to roll her eyes despite being unable to hide her smile. “I’d love to show you around.”

At that moment, they realized Luz had come back home when they heard a failed attempt to whisper “Oh my god, Amity, it’s happening!”. They could only look on in shock as the girls’ smiles turned to grins, with Luz’s hand temporarily letting go of Amity’s to hide her mouth and help her suppress a squeal. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for reading! Like I said, this is my first fic so I'd appreciate any feedback y'all may have! Also, thanks a lot mezzieeeee for proof reading!!
> 
> Also a few extra things:
> 
> -If some of the spanish feels off to you, it's probably because I'm argentinian and it would seriously be hard for me to unlearn my dialect to be more accurate to the specific dialect of the characters, so there might be some weirdness there. Sorry ab that!  
> -I have at least 3 or 4 chapters planned out vaguely, but I am currently pretty busy with school so updates might take a while. Also adhd means, truly, w h o k n o w s ? ? ? I could easily spend an entire day writing or spend 5 minutes over an entire week. Either way, mostly hoping to touch on the state of the world next chapter and introduce some of the themes of ace/aro spec feelings. Those are the things I mostly hope to write about as I develop their relationship so stay tuned!
> 
> Translations for the spanish:  
> “Buen día mami! Te extrañé!” -> "Good morning mom! I missed you!"  
> “Buen día, corazón.” -> "Good morning, sweetheart."  
> Mierda -> Shit  
> “Tengan cuidado cariño!” -> "Be careful dear!"  
> "Dios mío..." -> "My god..."
> 
> Lmk if anything's missing, sorry for the lengthy notes :p.


	2. A Sunset for the Two of Them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Camilia learns about the state of the Boiling Isles and the woman she's into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor CW for some sexuality talk near the end of the chapter, nothing explicit.

It was 6 A.M., and despite not being _close_ to having slept enough, Camilia knew she wasn’t going to get any more sleep that morning. She was used to how just a little anxiety about her day would prevent her from getting enough rest, so she resigned herself to the bags under her eyes as she got up and went through her morning routine.

It wasn’t that she was nervous or unbearably excited. She was going to spend the day with Eda after they both showed some amount of feelings for each other, sure, and it was the first time she’d had a date in years, which was certainly a big deal. But she knew the restlessness didn’t have a lot to do with that. She simply had something to do today, something which wasn’t a routine, and her brain and body would not let her forget, even if it meant making sure she didn’t get good sleep on one of her precious few days off.

Mornings like this one really made her feel the weight of the house’s emptiness. Luz and her didn’t have a lot of family, especially after Luz’s father left. Now that even her daughter was living somewhere else, complete silence had become the house’s ordinary state. Camilia took in the sight of the empty kitchen in the morning sun as she made herself some meager breakfast, but soon enough she couldn’t contain her restless energy and ended up cleaning aimlessly until it was time for her to leave.

When she stepped through the portal, she was greeted by the sight of a sleepy Amity still in her pajamas, absentmindedly brushing her teeth. The green-haired girl’s eyes widened when she noticed her girlfriend’s mother was standing there, and she tried to say “Hi there miss Noceda!” with her mouth full of toothpaste, resulting in an incomprehensible noise and a dropped toothbrush.

Camilia tried not to make the poor girl suffer any more embarrassment by suppressing a chuckle, but that became impossible when she heard her daughter’s unstoppable giggling nearby. That girl’s laughter had always been unbearably contagious. She managed to apologize and properly greet the blushing Amity while wiping tears from her eyes a few moments later, and unconvincingly scolded her daughter with a smile for causing them both to laugh.

“What’s all the ruckus about, can’t you people see some of us need our beauty sleep?” 

Camilia turned to see Eda coming down the stairs faking an indignant look. Despite her protests, it was clear she’d been awake for a while. Her makeup was immaculate, her lipstick matching her signature red dress, and her usually messy hair had a soft look that perfectly complemented her smile. _You don’t need any beauty sleep, you look stunning,_ Camilia thought.

“You don’t need any beauty sleep, you look stunning.”

Alright, it seems she didn’t _only_ think that. Eda seemed shocked and looked over at Luz, uncertain whether she should say anything in return considering their agreement about flirting yesterday. For her part, Luz said “Ew, mom, keep it to yourselves! Let’s go, Amity.” as she took her girlfriend’s hand and led her to her room. The effect of her mean comment was greatly diminished by the huge grin that illuminated her face.

“I thought you said not to flirt in front of her. Couldn’t help yourself?” Eda asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk once the girls had left earshot.

“I never said that rule applied to me, did I?”

“Hey! That’s not fair, what am I supposed to do? Just stand there and nod? This is _tyranny_.” Eda crossed her arms with exaggerated force and rolled her eyes. “In any case, since I can say this now, that look of yours is delightful.”

Camilia was wearing a red leather jacket and black fitted jeans, and she didn’t need Eda to say anything to know the time it took her to pick that outfit had been worth it. She would catch her staring with an unconscious smile every time their eyes met. “I know.” She said with a smirk. 

She had been there for only a few minutes, but any trace of her weariness from when the day started had completely disappeared.

…

Not long after the girls had left for school, Eda had bribed King with sweets so he’d stay in the house as the two of them headed outside for a tour of the Isles. “I’m sorry I can’t exactly take you anywhere fancy right now, seeing as there aren’t really any places like that open.” Eda had said before they left.

Camilia hadn’t quite registered what that meant until they approached the more densely populated part of the isles.

“Near the end of Bonehead Belos’ reign, the fighting got fairly… intense. It wasn’t just that he was powerful, he also had the support of some of the most influential families. Nothing we couldn’t handle, of course.” Eda said with a wink. "The town, on the other hand…"

Camilia had known about this, but she hadn’t seen the damage in person until then. She wasn't exactly familiar with the town's layout before everything happened, but it was obvious there were almost no shops left standing. Besides a few places distributing food, the market streets were mostly reduced to rubble, swept to the sides just enough to allow passage for people. Looking around she could notice no surviving major landmarks, only their most basic and sturdy walls giving any sign they had ever been there. Seeing the town like this without any people would have given the impression of a ghost town, abandoned after its collapse. But the first thing anyone would notice seeing this place was-

"It's so busy." 

The streets were full of people working on repairs, clearing rubble and distributing supplies. Most of the people working on repairs were wearing brown witch outfits, and used their magically enhanced strength to speed up the process. There were also witches with green clothes using plant magic to add some greenery to the town and simultaneously help with the rest of the efforts, pink-clad witches working with their abominations to clear rubble, and various other witches doing assorted jobs. While rebuilding the shops and most public buildings hadn't begun, repairs had clearly been ongoing with priority on homes, and the majority of them already looked functional.

“It’s been a tough process, but everyone has been doing what they can to help.” Eda pointed to a few witches wearing uniforms with mismatched colors, similar to Luz’s school clothes. “Since mixing magic disciplines is a fairly new concept for most people, I’ve been helping coordinate the kids that decided to follow that path. They’ve all been working hard to prove themselves by helping rebuild.” She had a look of pride that was much like the one she showed when talking about Luz. Camilia thought it made her look radiant, and couldn’t suppress a dreamy sigh.

“You’re clearly a great teacher for them too.” She said, and giggled quietly at the blushing smile Eda responded with. She couldn’t help but admire the way this woman had made a place where she belonged. She knew Eda had been a wanted criminal until not too long ago, but seeing her interact with the people in town that day it was hard to imagine her not being a pillar of that community. This was a period with a lot of uncertainty for everyone in the Boiling Isles, and the level of morale that was on display could only be maintained by people like Eda stepping up to help motivate and organize the collective efforts. Camilia almost felt a little jealous.

She snapped out of that line of thought when she heard a commotion. Stepping forward through the crowd she saw one of the witches with brown uniforms had collapsed, and some of their colleagues were helping them up. She immediately recognized some of the signs of heatstroke; the sunlight was harsh that day and it was almost noon, and the witch looked like they had been working non-stop. Without thinking, she rushed over and kneeled beside them.

“You should take your friend to a cool place in the shade and bring them some water. Some cool towels could also help. Anything to bring their body temperature back to normal.” She said to the witches that were helping out the collapsed builder. She then put a hand on the latter’s shoulder and gave them a comforting smile. “You should be fine after some rest, but I suggest you leave the work to your friends today. You can keep helping out tomorrow if you feel better, but it’d be pointless if you came back too soon only to collapse again, don’t you think?”

The witches were clearly stunned at first to see a human help them like this, but soon enough their worry for the collapsed witch outgrew their wariness and they followed her instructions, muttering some words of thanks as they moved.

Eda drew close to her again and whistled in appreciation. “Thanks for that, Cami. Sorry you had to help out like that on your day off. Everyone’s on edge trying to finish the repairs as soon as possible, and lately there have been more folks driving themselves too hard without breaks. Truth is, we could definitely use some help making sure everyone working takes better care of themselves.” After a small pause, her eyes widened and she held a hand out in front of her. “O-of course, I don’t mean to say _you_ should do that! You need to take care too, and it already looks like you have a lot of work in your world. Let’s just try to enjoy the rest of your day off, what do you say?”

“That sounds lovely.” Camilia felt a twinge of disappointment after hearing her dismiss the idea so quickly, though she didn’t fully understand why. She quickly pushed those feelings aside, however, and focused on the day ahead. She _had_ come here to have a good time after all, and she was looking forward to spending more time with Eda. Especially more time alone with her. Before she’d realized it, she had become completely captivated by the idea of this date she had only suggested on a whim.

…

“You can open your eyes now.”

When Camilia did as suggested, the view stunned her into silence. When the sky’d started to get tinted the colors of sunset, Eda had taken Camilia’s hand and guided her to her staff, saying there was somewhere they needed to see. After a short flight they’d reached a tall cliff overlooking most of the island, and the sight of the sun’s disappearing light painting the titan’s body a pinkish orange took Camilia’s breath away.

“...Hermoso.”

Eda grinned and internally thanked herself for having asked Luz to teach her a few words in spanish. She also thanked Luz, as an afterthought. “Would it be too cheesy if I said it wasn’t nearly as beautiful as you?”

Camilia let out a small breath through her nose. “Only if you don’t mean it.”

Eda’s grin only grew in size, but her eyes didn’t show a hint of irony. “Of course I do! All I could think about today was that you might be the most beautiful human… I mean, most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”

Camilia chuckled at the slip-up as they sat down close to each other. Despite the earlier heat, now that the sun was setting and they were at a higher altitude they needed the closeness to stay warm. She was sure they would have done that regardless of temperature though, and as Eda put her hand on top of hers she didn’t hesitate to rest her head on the taller woman’s shoulder.

They stayed like that until the sun had finally set, silently enjoying each other’s company. Eda was the first to speak up, once the stars had just started to become visible.

“Uh, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but when do you think you’ll have another day off?” She rubbed the back of her neck as she talked. “I think today was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. And a very different kind of fun to the usual!” She snorted a little at that and her face immediately flushed with embarrassment. “What I mean is, I really wanna do this again. Spend more time with you.”

Camilia couldn’t help but smile widely at the woman next to her, and snuggled closer as she answered. “It was great for me too. I think you’ve made me appreciate this place a lot more than I had, and… I haven’t had this kind of date in a while, but I certainly don’t remember them ever being this comfortable.” She pulled away for a little, still beaming at Eda. “And it just so happens I took two days off this time. I didn’t originally plan to spend them both here, but…”

“That’s -!” Eda started, shocking herself with her own intensity and stopping her sentence so she could say what she meant in a lower volume. “That sounds perfect. I was just wondering if maybe you would prefer to stay here for the night instead of going back to your world. I mean, it must be a drag to have to make the trip every time, right?”

Camilia giggled for a second. “Is that your way of inviting me into your bed?” She felt a small knot form around her throat and heat rush to her cheeks. She had never been good at that kind of flirting, and she wasn’t sure why she still bothered. It was like she had added it to her idea of what a date consisted of after realizing the people around her expected it when she was in college, but never fully understood the concept. She was about to joke about this when she noticed Eda had reacted strangely.

It clearly took her a couple seconds to realize what the comment had meant, but when she did, she froze up and her face slightly paled. “Oh, uh, right, that’s…” She took in a sharp breath and let out a long sigh before continuing, this time with a little more focus on her eyes. “I suppose I should talk about this now.” She avoided eye contact as she talked, doing her best to seem calm and not let her shakiness seep into her voice.

“I’m… what you’d call asexual. I don’t really _get_ the same sexual feelings most people say they experience, and I have no intention to… do anything relating to them. It’s not something I can change, or would want to.” She put her hands out in front of her and quickly continued with a hint of alarm in her eyes. “But that’s not to say I was just playing, or that I didn’t mean everything I said about you! I do understand romantic feelings, and I do think you’re an amazing, funny, gorgeous woman that I want to spend more time with.” She once again looked down, making a fist with one hand to steady herself. “I understand if that’s something important to you though, and I won’t make a fuss if you want to go back to having some distance between us.” She then let out a breath she’d been holding and waited for a response.

If she had to be honest, Camilia hadn’t completely registered everything Eda had said. As soon as she understood she’d said something that hurt her, or made her uncomfortable, blood rushed to her head and obscured her senses, and it took all of her willpower to hide her intense anxiety and listen. By the time the confession was finished, she knew two things. The first is she would have to ask Eda again about this, after they had both calmed down, and have her set the limits of what she was comfortable with clearly. The second is that before she realized it, she had fully fallen for this woman, and wanted to never see her feeling that anxious again.

She reached out her hand to caress Eda’s cheek and softly asked her the biggest question that had been burning in her mind. “Are you alright with kisses, Eda?”

After a brief moment of surprise, the pale woman began to laugh vigorously, tears welling up in her eyes as she threw her head back in laughter. Camilia thought it must have been at least ten times more beautiful than the sunset they’d just watched, and couldn’t contain the giddy smile that rose to her face despite the brief uncertainty about her answer.

“I’d love nothing more than a kiss from you, Camilia.” Eda finally replied after her laughter died down, gingerly clasping her hands behind Camilia’s neck. Camilia responded by wrapping her arms around her waist and bringing her closer, leaning in until their lips met. The kiss lasted a short moment before they separated, each of them seeking to make sure the other was alright. Color had fully returned to both of their cheeks, and they each let out a relieved chuckle. They embraced more closely, and when their lips met again they fully gave themselves over to the moment, enjoying each other’s presence and tuning out everything else.

...

They had been silently cuddling for longer than they’d realized when they were snapped out of their daze by a phone notification sound. To Camilia’s surprise, it hadn’t been her phone, but Eda’s that had received a message. Camilia leaned over her shoulder as she pulled out a shining scroll and opened up a message from Luz that read “Did you two get eaten by a monster or are you gonna come back?”.

Eda wrote “I’m disappointed you’d think so little of my skills. We’ll be back soon. This is Eda, by the way.” But never hit send - She was still getting used to her new phone. The two of them decided they’d spend some more time together at the house and Camilia would spend the night at her place again. They’d see each other again the next day and talk more concretely about their relationship, but there was no need to rush into anything. Besides, Camilia needed some time to think.

It didn’t come as a surprise to Luz when her moms (she’d started to call them that in her head after noticing the looks they gave each other) came back to the Owl House holding hands and happily chatting with each other. She also didn’t bother to hide her massive smile when she ran over to hug them and tell them about her day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks a lot for reading! As always, comments are super appreciated, and thanks for all the nice comments on chapter 1 already! They helped me stay motivated to write more for sure :3  
> "No need to rush anything" - Eda and Camilia as they break the sound barrier with their relationship development velocity.  
> This chapter introduced a lot of the stuff I wanted to touch on here (besides the gay stuff, of course) with the Isles, sexuality and Camilia's whole situation, so I hope y'all enjoyed it!


	3. Interlude of Belonging.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night after their date becomes a long night for Camilia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild CWs for sexuality talk, mentions of sex and of anxiety.

Camilia wasn’t sure whether the fact she thought of nights with no sleep as a routine was more indicative of the nightmarish shift management at her job or the absurdity of her own brain. All she knew at that time was it was 2 A.M., she had barely slept an hour, and she had no clue how to stop the thoughts that barreled through her mind at unbearable speeds.

Throughout her life, plenty of people had called her impulsive. They weren’t necessarily wrong, certainly from their perspectives she had always made rash decisions from one day to the next. But what they didn’t know is there was a painstaking process that led to such decisions. A process that involved her mind shutting off sleep until she had weighed all the options available to her and reached a conclusion she was confident in. It had led to some of the best choices she had ever made, choices that had completely shaped her life and given it meaning. She hated it more than anything in the world.

Two things in particular about her day on the Boiling Isles had left an impression on her that she couldn't shake off. The first was, at a glance, the biggest issue. She couldn’t deny the somewhat hurt disappointment she’d felt when Eda had dismissed the idea of her helping out in their world. She was right, of course. Camilia had her hands full with her job in the human world, and she was painfully aware of how little free time it left for herself. That was a large part of the problem. 

That day, she saw the way Eda belonged in that world. The way her students looked up to her, the proud glint in her eyes when she saw them working to help rebuild the town. The fact was, she had clearly found her place among the people who had once seen her as a dangerous criminal. And before that, Camilia had already been faced with how her own daughter, who she had raised in her world for 14 years, had finally found a home where she felt entirely safe and accepted, and it was in a different world entirely. She had worked so hard to make sure Luz fit in in their world, with the expectations their society had for a child like her, and yet the girl left on her own and found her own place she fit in. 

Looking at these two people she loved, Camilia was ashamed to admit she felt jealous of them. Because it made her realize she had never felt she’d belonged anywhere.

Her family had moved around a lot when she was young. It was only for the last two years of high school that they’d finally landed in one place for more than a year, and she’d had a rough time making a lot of friends as a queer brown girl in a very white, conservative school. 

She had some better luck in college, but never felt quite comfortable being herself around those friends. They’d all had a lot more experience with social situations than her, and it always felt like she was a step behind, copying what she saw in an attempt to fit in. As it became harder for her to keep up with her studies, her concentration seeming more fleeting and fickle, she drifted away from her social life in general to focus on finishing college. 

After college, she had a short-lived relationship with Luz’s father, and as her responsibilities grew, the limited free time her job allowed became insufficient for most social activities. By the time her daughter had started middle school, her relationship with her family had become distant, and she barely kept in touch with a few friends she’d made in her early work years.

Making sure Luz got the childhood she deserved had been her biggest motivation for a lot of her adult life, and now the girl had found a more fitting place to spend that childhood for herself. And it was in a completely different world from the one Camilia had spent her entire life in.

Over the past couple days, as her relationship with Eda grew, a few particularly unwelcome doubts had started to settle down in her mind. Why was she there? Why was she doing this job, why was she living in that empty house? Was this where she belonged?

Before she realized it, she’d gotten out of bed and was pacing back and forth around her house. She had turned on the TV for background noise, and as she paced with the remote on her hand she would mute and unmute it as the noise became a hindrance or a benefit for her ability to think.

When she found her thoughts drifting towards Luz and Eda again, she was initially relieved. She remembered the pure joy she’d felt the first time she was able to hug her daughter again after being separated from her for months. She remembered the beating of her heart when kissing Eda, the romantic feelings that came so rarely to her shining stronger than she remembered from the relationships of her youth. And then, she remembered the moments before their first kiss. She remembered the comment that had caused her lover to visibly panic. And the second issue that stayed on her mind from that day reared its head again.

It wasn’t that she still blamed herself for hurting Eda, she understood it hadn’t been either of their faults. But she couldn’t stop thinking about what Eda had said at that time, and afterwards when she’d asked her to talk about her sexuality a little more. 

The way she had described asexuality kept bouncing around in her head. She understood what Eda wanted, or rather what she didn’t want, and she was perfectly content with it. Eda had suggested she could have other partners if she felt she needed to, but she didn’t feel that way at all. 

And she reckoned that wasn’t the way most people would react. She had talked to people who valued their sexuality her entire life, she’d had relationships with people like that and felt perfectly fine with it. Yet she was starting to think she didn’t personally care about it at all, and felt no disappointment that her lover did not want to have a sexual life. 

So did that mean she was asexual too? But she didn’t feel particularly adverse to sex, like Eda clearly did. She just didn’t feel strongly interested in it either, seeing it as just an aspect of relationships she’d thought was universal. She had questioned her sexuality before, but it had not been hard to conclude she was pansexual; after all, gender never particularly mattered to her. Had that conclusion been wrong? 

She was starting to have a headache. Two different problems like this were too much for one night, and she knew she would not get any sleep if she just kept thinking in circles. The bothersome thoughts and unreasonable doubts would keep running back and forth through her mind, keeping her restless throughout the night.

“This would be so much easier if I could talk to Eda…”

Camilia jumped a little at her unexpected exclamation, and without thinking she pulled out her phone. She’d gotten Eda’s number after finding out her strange magic scroll and human phones were compatible, and she was now staring at her screen trying to talk herself out of sending her a text in the middle of the night. 

She could never have succeeded once she’d unlocked her phone, though. Seeing Eda’s picture in her contact flipped a switch inside her, and the thoughts which until a few moments ago were fully dedicated to making her miserable were now entirely directed at this beautiful woman who she had fallen in love with. She could only think of how much she wanted to ruffle Eda’s adorable fluffy hair, to see her cute little golden fang move as she grinned, to make her face light up with a giggle and a blush from a compliment.

She sent the text and immediately regretted it, but couldn’t bring herself to delete it and pretend it never happened. The truth is she wanted to see Eda more than anything at that moment, and she knew how selfish that was. But she spent her entire working days helping sick and injured people for a lot less pay than she deserved; she had earned a little selfishness once in a while. 

After 15 minutes had passed with no answer, she’d resumed her pacing and thinking, resigning herself to the fact Eda was sleeping and wouldn’t answer, and not wishing to wake her up with a call. So she gasped in surprise when she heard a knock on the door, and only relaxed when she heard a familiar voice.

“Um, Cami? Are you there?”

She rushed to the door and opened it in a daze, her heart feeling like it could beat out of her chest at any moment. Eda looked a little out of breath, like she’d just been running, and she was wearing the long skirt and blouse she used around her house on lazy days. Seeing her flushed face light up when the door opened made Camilia feel at ease, and she spoke with a giddy, incredulous tone.

“Ha ha, you actually just… came here. Wow, you’re adorable.” She reached out to cup Eda’s cheek and marveled at the smile she responded with, then realized it was probably a little rude that she hadn’t let her in yet. “Oh, right, come in!”

Eda hid her mouth with one hand and chuckled as she entered the house, and Camilia was suddenly very relieved she’d been in a restless cleaning mood that morning. She held Eda’s hand and silently guided her to the couch, sitting with her without letting go.

“So…” Eda let her worry show on her face for a second, then shook her head and gave Camilia a smirk. “You know, I loved your outfit for our date, but this is a sight to behold too.”

Camilia looked down, suddenly acutely aware of her lime green and yellow polka dot pajamas, and tried to hide her embarrassed face with her free hand. “Look who’s talking! You ran here with these adorable things!” She pointed at Eda’s slippers, which had a bunny design full with long fluffy ears, and erupted with giggles.

When Camilia recovered from her outburst, she saw Eda had simply been gazing at her with a fond smile and eyes full of affection. “I’m glad you seem to be ok, Cami.” She said, closed her eyes and leaned forward to touch their foreheads together. 

“Yeah. Seeing you helped a lot with that.” Camilia let herself enjoy the moment for a few seconds then pulled back, looking apologetic but unable to stop her smile. “Sorry, do you want some water? You looked like you just ran a marathon.”

Eda took her chin in her hand and moved in for a kiss without giving her an answer. Camilia wasn’t particularly surprised, she’d wanted to do the same since they first saw each other tonight, but nonetheless her heartbeat got so loud it was the only thing she could hear. When they pulled apart, she felt completely refreshed, like her mind had finally been cleared of everything that had been troubling her, at least for a few moments.

_ I’m like a schoolgirl with her first crush _ , she thought. “Me too.” Replied Eda with a wide grin, and only then did Camilia realize she’d said it out loud. Before she noticed, her thoughts escaping her mind had become an everyday occurrence with this woman.

“But also, I  _ do _ need some water. I did just run through the woods to get here. In slippers.”

Camilia couldn’t contain her laughter as she got up to get a glass of water, and she only prayed she wasn’t being loud enough to wake up the neighbors.

…

“So… had trouble sleeping?”

After both their heartbeats were back to normal, they’d gone back to the couch. Now Eda was laying down with her back propped up by one of the armrests, arms wrapped around Camilia, who was leaning her body against her. Camilia took a few breaths before talking, while Eda softly massaged her hand absentmindedly.

“I… had a lot of things on my mind tonight. It put me into a weird mode I get into sometimes where my thoughts just won’t stop rocketing back and forth and they don’t let me sleep.”

After a short pause, Eda remembered something. “I think Luz told me about something similar happening to her sometimes.”

Camilia nodded. “That girl, I think she’s got a lot of the same quirks in her mind that I do. It means I can help her with it sometimes, but it makes it especially frustrating when I can’t.” She stayed silent for a few seconds, then continued. “After we watched the sunset together, I thought a lot about what we talked about.”

“My asexuality, you mean?”

“Yeah. Not in a bad way, trust me. It’s more like, the only bad thing is the way my brain decided to process everything, really.” She rubbed her temple in an exaggerated motion and let out a sigh. “But really, what stuck with me is the way you described it, both in that moment and when we talked about it afterwards. It got me thinking about the way I felt about sexuality, and it made me realize how little I’d thought about it.”

Eda wasn’t sure where this was going, but she knew she really didn’t like seeing her partner agonizing over this. “Well, that’s really not your fault at all. I mean, obviously I don’t know too much about this world, but if it’s anything like where I’m from, you probably never knew that was a possibility. Most people just assume… well, a lot of things about that subject.

“Right. I… definitely did that a lot. Just went along with what people said was normal.” Camilia thought about the way she’d tried to make her daughter do the same. She felt a soft squeeze in her hand and smiled at Eda, doing her best to shake off that train of thought. It wouldn’t be of any help to keep beating herself up for this, she had already done that enough. She took a second to regain focus and continued. “I think I’m starting to realize I never really  _ felt _ that ‘normal’.”

Eda felt a little amusement at the use of air quotes, but she also realized how serious this was. She had been through a process of questioning like this, so she understood just how overwhelming it could be. “So you’ve been thinking about your experiences, trying to see if maybe you’re asexual too?”.

Camilia gave a quick nod. “But I know I don’t feel the same way as you do. I mean…”

Eda felt bad cutting her off, but she’d gone through this kind of denial before and didn’t want to sit by and watch it happen. “It’s not like we’re all the same, you know. I mean, there’s a lot of variety to what it’s like. Everyone has their own experiences, and their own way to define themselves.”

“But I have Luz. I have a biological kid, and I’ve had multiple relationships where sex was just a normal part of them, and that never bothered me. It can’t be the same thing, right?” 

“Well, maybe it isn’t. And yeah, I definitely could never have done that. But there’s a reason why you’ve been thinking so much about this, right?” Eda began to stroke Camilia’s hair, and spoke as calmly as she could in an attempt to comfort her.

“It’s just that....” Camilia took in a long breath and sighed. “I can’t think of a time I really  _ wanted _ it personally. I liked my partners, I know that. And when it was clear they wanted sex as a part of our relationship, I had no problem with it. And it’s not like it was terrible or anything, but… I never really asked myself whether it was something  _ I  _ needed. Or if it was even something I wanted.

“You know, when I see you, my head feels a little lighter. Like just you being there is enough to make my constant stream of scattered thoughts a little more focused and manageable. Like the fog that’s always there suddenly cleared up, and I can see everything much more clearly. It also feels like your beauty seeps into the rest of the world, and everything is just so much better.”

The warmth that began spreading through Eda’s heart at that moment was overwhelming, and she had to cover her mouth with one hand to prevent an embarrassing squeal from leaking out.

“And when I say that I love the way you look, what I mean is that I want to ruffle your adorably messy hair, or tickle your cute pointy ears, or kiss your forehead to see your brilliant smile. I mean that looking at your face feels like I’m seeing a beautiful piece of art for the first time. But now I realize that none of those feelings are really sexual.”

Eda could not  _ believe  _ this woman. She had sincerely told her all of the nicest things she’d ever heard about herself, and it wasn’t even intended to be a direct flirt. Her mind had fully short-circuited during that little speech, and it took all of her willpower to not shower Camilia with a thousand kisses that instant. She knew she should say something about the main topic of their conversation, but she also couldn’t simply let everything that she just heard go.

“I love you too.” She said. When Camilia started laughing so hard she almost choked, she continued in a slightly louder voice to be heard over the laughter. “I love you too, Cami, and I say that because it would be  _ absurd _ to take everything you just said as anything other than a confession of love.” 

The laughter had barely subsided, but she pushed onward. “As for the last thing you said… Well, first of all, I know this might be selfish, but I’m really relieved to hear that.” She gave Camilia a somewhat embarrassed smile that warmed her heart, and continued as the laughter died down.

“And maybe that means that you’re asexual too, just in a slightly different way than me. Or maybe it means something different, and your feelings could vary a lot depending on your partner; and maybe you just need some time to understand yourself better. Whatever the case, I will be there for you. I’ll help you however I can, even if all I can do is hear you out when you have something you need to talk about. Because you’re an amazing woman, and I care about you, and I know I’m not the only one.

“You’re not alone, and I promise you won’t ever be.” She finished, placing her hand on top of Camilia’s head and giving her hair a soft ruffle.

Camilia leaned into the touch and turned her body to wrap her arms around Eda in a warm embrace. She still wasn’t certain about a lot of things, but that no longer mattered to her in the moment. She let herself sink into the comfort of her partner’s warmth and closed her eyes, a thankful and comfortable smile on her lips. She hadn’t brought up her other worries to Eda, but deep down she was now certain what her conclusion would be. In that moment, safe in her partner’s arms, she knew she had a place to belong.

Minutes passed in comfortable silence before Camilia spoke up again, her voice quiet and finally showing signs of sleepiness. “How did you do it?”

Eda was a little taken aback by the question, especially since she’d almost drifted to sleep. “You mean… figure out I was asexual? I mean, it wasn’t exactly easy but-”

“No, I mean... You were a wanted criminal, living in hiding of the people in power in your world. Yet in the space of less than a year, you became someone important to all the people around you. You’re a pillar in the community that used to see you as someone dangerous to avoid. You belong there, when you had very little connection to anyone there less than a year ago. How did you do it?”

There was a silent pause while Eda thought about the question. She seemed embarrassed at first, then hesitant. Finally a fond smile lit up her face and she answered. 

“Well, I wasn’t alone. Yeah, it was very rough when I had first become cursed and had to live outside the law to practice my style of magic. But during that time, I met King. He’s an adorable little rascal, but his presence helped me more than I could have imagined. And of course, later I met Luz. That girl completely changed my life, and I never could have made so many changes without her. It was only with her help that I was finally able to mend my relationship with my sister, and having her as a student taught me the patience I needed to connect with the community I’m a part of now.” She let out an embarrassed sigh, realizing she was probably rambling.

“So, in short, I was lucky. I got very lucky to meet wonderful people who helped me greatly just by being a part of my life.”

Camilia’s heart swelled with pride hearing about the impact her daughter had, and she recognized how much her own story mirrored Eda’s. 

“I’m very lucky too.” She said as she finally drifted to sleep, her messy thoughts disappearing as comfort and warmth completely painted over her heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, I think I might have written more in this one week than in any single week of my life x3  
> Hope y'all are enjoying it and as always really appreciate comments! They motivate me massively which is necessary bc my levels of motivation for anything are usually very low hehe.  
> Only one chapter left, might take me quite a bit longer than the rest has! I really have no idea, I've been writing a lot more than I thought I would but I know my brain could suddenly decide to just give up so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Either way thanks for reading all the way till now, it's been super nice to do something I'm not used to and publish it and see people actually be interested in it!


	4. Epilogue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW mention of spiders and very slight horror-ish stuff at the beginning

In her dream, she couldn’t breathe. Until just a few moments ago, her dreamscape had been absolutely typical, with places and people she recognized despite them being so different from their real counterparts. But all of a sudden, things had started to fall apart. The walls of the house she’d been in fell away and left her standing in absolute darkness, and she thought she could feel the air disappear as the void consumed her world. She started to panic, and felt as if she couldn’t breathe no matter how much she gasped for air. In that terrifying moment, she was certain it was the end.

When Camilia woke up with a forceful sneeze, she realized her mouth was full of her girlfriend’s gray hair, and couldn’t contain the coughs that finished waking up the both of them.

“That’s the third time this month your hair gives me nightmares.” She moaned. The early morning sun painted their room a golden orange, and despite her complaint she couldn’t help but admire how beautiful the sight of her partner’s unruly mane was in the light.

“This is why I always say I should just be the big spoon, silly.” Eda turned around in bed and lovingly brushed Camilia’s hair behind her ear. The effect of the gesture was greatly diminished by the lock of gray hair Camilia coughed up afterwards.

“I guess it’s almost time we got up anyway.” Camilia said after a chuckle as she turned to look at the now familiar ceiling of the house they lived in. She didn’t mention the reason she did it was to combat her desire to kiss her girlfriend, who looked impossibly captivating in the morning light as always.

Eda turned and put an arm around her, giving her a sheepish smile with closed eyes. “We’ve got a little more time, let’s just go back to sleep.”

Almost as if on cue, the instant she tossed out her carefree suggestion they heard a loud noise from downstairs and a high-pitched teenage voice. “King! I told you not to make any noise, they’re gonna wake up!”

Eda sighed. “She’s the one who’s making the most noise…” She wiped her face in an exaggerated motion, then acted like nothing had happened. “I’m sure everything is ok. We can go back to sleep.”

Camilia turned to face her and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Come on, love. Go make sure everything is ok, please?” When she saw Eda ready to complain, she gave in to her impulses and planted a kiss on her lips to silence her.

“Fine, fine. You’re lucky you’re so cute in the mornings.” Eda said with a roll of her eyes as she got up to deal with the rowdy kids.

Camilia turned off her phone’s alarm for the day and got up quickly, knowing she was likely to oversleep if she didn’t. The sound of familiar voices downstairs warmed her heart as she got dressed, and she couldn’t contain a chuckle when Eda’s exasperated voice came through the walls in a yell that let her know nothing unusual was happening. Nothing unusual for the Owl House, at least. 

“Where did these spiders even come from!? And why is Luz dressed like an otter? Ugh, It’s too early for this.” 

By the time she was done getting dressed and headed downstairs, only one large demon spider remained in the house, and a pink abomination twice its size was intimidating it into running out through the front door as King cheered it on. “Onwards, my faithful minion! We’ll take this fight outside!” 

“King, wait! They’re explosive!” Amity yelled as she gave chase. Camilia didn’t even blink as she made a beeline towards the kitchen to make some coffee. She’d been living with Eda, Luz and King (and more often than not, Amity) for months now, and she’d become numb to the hectic and plentiful adventures they were prone to getting involved in. 

She jumped a little and gave a fond chuckle when she felt a hug from behind.

“¡Buen día, mami! ¡Te quiero mucho!” Exclaimed Luz, briefly burying her smiling face in her mom’s side before darting outside to help her girlfriend and her mentor.

“Buen día cariño, ten cuidado.” Answered Camilia, her voice unable to disguise the overwhelming fondness she felt whenever she heard her daughter’s voice. She continued to make breakfast with a smile while the witches handled the situation outside.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all sitting around the table having breakfast, and Luz had just finished telling the story of how they’d accidentally summoned ten giant spiders using a spell they read about in one of Eda’s tomes of forbidden knowledge. As usual, Camilia’s reproach had very little force behind it as she was largely won over by her daughter’s adorable joyous expression.

“Sorry if we woke you up, miss Noceda. We’re always causing trouble…” Amity looked down and fiddled with her fingers, and Camilia felt a pang of sadness. She’d been dating Luz for so long, yet her girlfriend’s boldness hadn’t quite rubbed off on her enough to make her anxiety less noticeable.

“Amity, sweetie, I’ve told you before, you can just call me Camilia, it’s alright. We’re like family at this point.” She did her best to give the girl a kind look, and was happy to see a blushing smile light up her face. “And you don’t have to apologize, I’m sure Luz was mostly responsible for what happened.” She gave her daughter a side glance and inwardly giggled at the squirm she responded with.

“Plus, Eda still has the record for causing the most unreasonable problems, and I sleep next to her every night. I’ve resigned myself to the ridiculous danger.” She punctuated her last sentence with an exaggerated sigh, causing Eda to scoff in return.

“Oh please, you know you love it.” She said as she stuffed her face with the eggs her girlfriend had prepared, completely certain she’d simply roll her eyes with a smile.

“Yeah, it’s ok, Amity! My moms are used to it, so it’s no big deal!” Luz said with a perfectly innocent grin. This caused Eda to choke on her breakfast, and Camilia hid her face with one hand in a failed attempt to hide her spreading blush. Luz had started referring to them like that out loud a couple weeks ago, and they were still not used to it. Neither of them was fully into the idea of having an official wedding ceremony or anything despite having lived together for months, so it still came to them as a shock whenever someone talked about them as if they were married. 

They didn’t exactly mind, of course, but they were never good at hiding their embarrassment.

Amity gave her girlfriend a weak smile and took her hand under the table, finishing her breakfast as quickly as she could with her free hand. “Thanks, mom- UM! Sorry, I mean, thanks, miss Camilia!” She started to choke on her breakfast as well, and Camilia tried her best to suppress her laughter as she mused on how much she and Eda resembled each other.

“Hey sugar, you’re gonna be busy with work till late today, right?” Eda suddenly asked, with a few beads of sweat on her forehead. Camilia frowned a little at the suspicious question, and Luz elbowed her mentor in the stomach in the brief moment her mom blinked with terrifying precision.

“Um, yeah, I’ve got a few house visits scheduled today, and then the local sports team asked me if I could stay close in case anything happened during their game in the afternoon. Why did you ask?” She eyed her girlfriend with clear suspicion.

"No reason! Just wanted to know so I could, uh, cook dinner! Right, that's it." 

Luz rapidly buried her face in her hands in a dramatic display of incredulity. For her part, Camilia simply shrugged and focused on finishing her breakfast. Unlike most of the house's inhabitants, she needed a little time to get herself going in the mornings, and she wasn't going to spend energy she didn't have yet to worry about the surprise her girlfriend was clearly failing to hide. Still, she wasn't sure why she'd prepare something that day specifically.

“In any case, I do have some free time after the morning house visits, but the Parks invited me over for lunch as thanks for the other day, so I’ll probably be out of the house till evening.” She said as she got up to take the dishes from her finished breakfast. Camilia had met Willow’s dads after she helped their daughter when she got injured during a grudgby match, and they had quickly become friends. 

“Perfect!” Cut in, suddenly, the voice of King. “That gives us plenty of time for-” The rest of his sentence was muffled by three hands quickly covering his mouth, with Eda, Amity and Luz all having jumped on him as soon as he spoke.

“Plenty of time for cooking dinner! That’s all, we all just want to make something delicious for my beautiful girlfriend!” Eda quickly interjected.

Camilia simply rolled her eyes and chuckled lightly at the obvious attempt at secrecy. She grabbed her bag, kissed and waved everyone goodbye and headed out for her first job of the day.

…

Being someone with little experience in the Demon Realm, and having specialized knowledge from another world that was very different from the common practices here, nobody was quite sure what Camilia should be doing as her job. The restructuring of society in the Boiling Isles after the fall of the emperor and the coven system was an ongoing process with many kinks to iron out over time, and one of those included figuring out what every individual could do for the community in exchange for the things they needed. Camilia was a very particular example of this.

The present solution involved her using her knowledge of nursing from the human world to help in the process of recovery for people with illnesses similar to those she knew. In the meanwhile, though, she was also studying about illnesses that were more magical in nature, in particular curses. Eventually, she hoped she could provide vital care for anyone in her community that needed it.

While the Boiling Isles had now developed a much more compassionate view of work and value than they’d had with Belos; just as a lot of people in the Isles found it hard to get used to this change of pace, Camilia couldn’t easily move past the ideas of labor she’d been taught her whole life. She didn’t quite feel like she was doing enough to earn her keep yet, so she wanted to learn how to help with curses to completely silence the tiny voice at the back of her head that said she wasn’t doing enough.

Because of this, the last “house visit” she had in the morning that day wasn’t exactly typical. After she’d finished seeing the patients she was used to, she headed to a house near the edge of town where she was going to see the victim of a particular curse that weakened their magic and gave them certain amphibian features. When she arrived, she saw the curse specialist who had offered to teach Camilia what she knew, waiting for her near the house’s entrance.

“Oh, hey, you’re here. Uh… How’s it going?” Said the specialist with a dry look, clearly not used to exchanging pleasantries. She wore a yellow dress with a long amber skirt, and a short grey cloak hung atop her shoulders. The cloak matched with the singular streak of silver on her short curly orange hair, which along with her right eye would always remain as symbols of the curse which she’d first placed on her own sister and later shared.

“Good morning, Lilith. Everything’s quite alright, thank you. Shall we enter?” 

It had come as quite a shock to Camilia when she first learned about everything that had happened between Eda and Lilith, and she won’t deny her first reaction had been tinted by anger. 

By the time she’d learned this, though, the sisters’ relationship had already improved massively from their time as rivals, and she quickly took on a similar attitude to the problem as her girlfriend did. Anyone would agree Camilia was a forgiving person, and she couldn’t maintain a grudge against a single mistake by a young girl dealing with a lot of pressure.

After realizing the horror of what she'd done, Lilith had dedicated a lot of time outside of the coven she’d entered learning about curses. She now saw her work with curse victims as a way to atone for her mistake, and she was very glad to have someone she could teach about the many treatments she’d learned. Even if she wasn't very good at showing it.

“Well then, let’s head in. Amphibian curses can be quite tricky to tell apart, and that’s the most vital step to their treatment. This will be good practice for you.” Said Lilith as she opened the door and headed inside.

Camilia made a mental note of this, then decided to take out her notepad to actually write it down, knowing she’d be very likely to forget otherwise. 

She stepped in through the door, eager to learn more about curses and also meet another one of the town’s residents. By this point, she had met a lot of the town’s members, and slowly the faces that had once been strangers to her were becoming acquaintances, neighbors and friends.

She put on her best smile and introduced herself to yet another person who, like her, had an appearance that made them stand out against the rest of the town’s inhabitants. And someone who, also like her, had made this place their home regardless, finding not just acceptance, but belonging.

…

Satisfied after a long day, a rare occurrence for her now, Camilia walked back to the Owl House, reviewing some of what she’d learned from Lilith in her head to help her pass the time.

Once they were done with the house visit, Camilia had taken the time before she had to go for lunch to ask her teacher some questions she’d prepared. When she was in college, that kind of preparation and foresight had been very difficult for her to maintain, but after years of studying and learning how to cope with her problems with concentration, it was now one of her best tools for learning.

After the brief study session, she spent the early afternoon with her friends. Willow and her parents were some of the first people to really welcome Camilia into the Boiling Isles with open arms, and by now they were some of her closest friends. Even when Eda wasn’t around with her, Camilia found that they were one of the only couples she’d ever met who she could be around and not feel like a third wheel, always feeling like part of the conversation in very natural ways.

Afterwards, the grudgby match in the afternoon had been mostly uneventful, and the team had been happy to remind Camilia it was partly thanks to her. 

When she first started working here, one of the things she’d taken care of was helping kids with injuries from school matches. After seeing too many kids injured for easily preventable grudgby incidents, her motherly instinct took control and caused her to rally with other kids’ parents to demand the school implement better rules.

Despite her initial uncertainty about doing something that rash so soon after moving to the Boiling Isles, the response from the other parents had been so successful that some of the rule changes eventually made their way to official leagues. There had been some grumbling by old fans about the changes, but that stopped when the players had made it clear they preferred not playing to going back to their usual rate of injuries.

She chuckled silently while remembering the way the entire team had stumbled into each other to thank her the first time she met them. The players had been the first people to really appreciate what she’d done for their safety, and by now they all considered her an honorary member. A few of them had accidentally called her mom a couple of times, too.

Camilia shook her head as she neared the Owl House, realizing she’d completely lost track of her review of curses and had instead just been reminiscing about her day. 

She quickly greeted Hooty, avoiding eye contact and entering as quickly as possible to minimize the time spent acknowledging his existence, and she was shocked when she realized the inside of the house was completely dark.

_ I get the feeling I may have forgotten something. _

She jumped a little when she heard a loud pop followed by someone angrily whispering. “You can’t pop the party poppers before the light’s on, that misses the whole point!”

“Well maybe if Luz wasn’t so slow, they would have been on by now!” Responded the unmistakable voice of King, clearly louder than anyone intended judging by the loud shushing noises that followed.

“I’m trying! I don’t understand why they- oh, there it goes!” Camilia heard Luz’s voice say just as a dozen small, spherical lights appeared from different corners of the room. 

The lights all floated upwards, slowly illuminating small vertical slices of the room. As they reached the ceiling, they began to coalesce together into a single sphere of light that shone with an almost dangerous intensity for a moment. 

When the lights had all finished merging, there was a muffled popping sound that accompanied the sphere suddenly cracking. It rapidly lost its contiguous form and disintegrated into countless miniscule particles of light that slowly drifted down into the living room, shining on the entire scene and giving it a soft orange glow that rivaled the setting sun’s beauty.

In their light, Camilia could finally see the inside of the house. The multi-colored streamers from the prematurely used party poppers were draped over the living room, tangled with the many magical artifacts that littered the upper walls of the house. The dining table had been moved so it was at the center of the room in front of the entrance, with a large cake lying on its surface and a banner that read “Te queremos, Camilia!” hanging over it.

“Surprise!” Exclaimed everyone in the house with a small delay once they’d recovered from seeing the light spell work as they’d planned. Luz immediately ran up to hug her mom, with King quickly following and jumping in place demanding hugs as well. Amity was hanging back awkwardly watching the interaction with a smile, and just over Luz’s hair, Camilia could see Eda’s eyes darting back and forth between her and cake, her love for sweets and her girlfriend fighting a fierce battle for her heart.

“I didn’t forget my birthday, did I?” Camilia was still processing all the information. She remembered the secrecy from this morning when she saw the surprise party, but she still wasn’t sure why it was happening.

“We just wanted to do something nice for you since you’re always doing the same for us, mom!” 

Luz let go of her mom and picked up King, passing him over to her for a hug as Eda ushered her to her seat. Amity quickly lit up the candles on the cake.

“Since you told us on your birthday that you would have preferred something smaller, we thought maybe we could take a second shot at a birthday party. What do you think, Sugar?” Eda was practically beaming at her, but she could tell by her voice she was anxious about the whole situation.

Camilia took a second to take it all in. It was true that she’d asked them to take the surprise birthdays a little easier after they made her last one into a huge party. She’d been grateful for the effort they’d gone through, but had simply been exhausted by the end. Regardless, she had definitely not expected they’d take the advice to heart so much, and especially not  _ before _ her actual birthday.

Seeing them all together in that moment, beautifully lit by the soft glow of the light spell she knew had probably taken them days to prepare, it was impossible to stop the spread of warmth over her heart. Ignoring the burning candle, she quickly left her chair to thank everyone her own way.

She grabbed all four of them and pulled them into a massive group hug, letting out her joy in the form of an exclamation. “Thank you all so much, you’re too sweet!”

Though it took them by surprise, everyone in the Owl House was intimately familiar by now with the mother and daughter pair’s very physical outbursts of affection, and soon enough they were all giggling and returning the hug, fully relieved to see Camilia have such a positive reaction. Surprisingly, it was Camilia herself who broke the group hug first, though only to follow it up with a round of individual hugs; starting with King, who had been on her lap, then Amity, Luz and Eda.

Everyone got individual thanks along with their hugs, King being called a wonderful demon, Amity a very sweet witch, Luz being given the longest hug, a kiss in the cheek, and getting to hear a very loving and ridiculously sweet string of compliments in spanish that nobody else understood.

Camilia finished the streak of hugs by bringing Eda close and giving her a short kiss, then whispering her gratitude and love into her ear as they embraced. She let her head rest on her partner’s shoulder for a second before breaking the hug and gazing at everyone in the room, fondness shining in her eyes even brighter than it had through her idiosyncratic use of affectionate physicality.

“Well, now that I got it out of my system, I know you’re all just waiting to eat the cake, so how about we skip the candles and cut it already?” She said once she finally sat back down.

“Yes! It’s time for  _ cake _ !” King shouted as he ran to his adorable high baby seat, throwing his stubby hands in the air with glee.

The girls giggled as they took their seats, and though Eda managed to keep herself quiet, she couldn’t help staring the cake down with the eyes of a predator about to pounce on its prey while Camilia cut a portion for everyone.

…

A couple of hours later, while Luz and King left with Amity to walk her home where she would spend the night with her siblings, Camilia and Eda sat leaning against each other on the couch. Eda was waving her arms wildly as she narrated the day’s events to her girlfriend, telling her enthusiastically about their struggles to prepare everything before she came home.

“And then, just as luz was preparing the final light spell, we heard a loud screech outside.  _ The spiders had come back! _ ” Despite having lost some of her magical ability, which made things a lot more dangerous for her, the wild glint in her eye when she talked about dangerous magical situations had never subsided.

“Of course, as the most powerful witch alive, I fearlessly took them on while Luz finished the light spells to delight my wonderful wi- girlfriend!” She ended her signature overconfident boasting with a sheepish smile and a slight blush, then turned towards Camilia.

“That girl, she really surprised me when-” 

She cut herself off mid-sentence, eyes widening when she noticed Camilia’s expression. The worry in her voice was apparent when she continued. “Hey, Cami, what’s wrong?”

Eda wrapped one arm around her partner and took her hand, waiting for her to speak up. Camilia had started crying, but what surprised Eda the most was she seemed to be smiling with an overwhelming radiance in between sobs.

In those moments, sitting down next to Eda, feeling the safety of her partner’s warmth next to her, Camilia had finally relaxed after her hectic day. As that happened, she’d started to sink into her own thoughts, now a lot calmer than usual.

She found herself thinking about that night after her first date with Eda, and her uncertainty about her own place in the world at that time. She hadn’t admitted it out loud, but she’d felt terrified. Some of her worst intrusive thoughts had been certain she would never find a place she belonged, never have a true home she could go back to and feel safe in.

Now, as she compared those feelings to her present day, something finally fell into place for Camilia. She'd found that place.

It wasn’t easy for her to get used to her life in the Boiling Isles; that was an ongoing process which brought new challenges and doubts every day. Still, when she stopped to contemplate how much progress she’d made so far, the only conclusion anyone could reach was that she was already becoming an important part of the town and its community. The witches that had lived here their entire lives were beginning to accept her as simply another one of the town’s many unique characters, and some had no choice but to be thankful and respectful for the work she did.

And today, she had come back to the Owl House after a long day and found the people she lived with, her  _ family _ , waiting for her to give her a surprise. A surprise filled with their affection for her and nothing more. There was no choice but to accept these people loved her, and she absolutely loved them. 

It wasn’t the rewarding but exhausting love that she was used to, being a single mother to Luz for so long; it was a different, broader love that they shared with each other, a familial love that meant they supported each other through everything. Of course, she would never stop loving her daughter with all her heart, and her romantic love with Eda spread a warmth through her that constantly gave her bliss. But beyond that, she had now found not just a physical place, but a family that she could call home.

At this realization, she couldn’t stop the tears of joy that began to fall down her cheeks. She let herself go as she sobbed, the relief and glee of having found her sense of belonging being amplified even further by the warmth being offered by her partner.

“I’m ok, love, it’s not-” She tried to answer Eda to let her know not to worry between sobs, but once the floodgate had been opened it was hard to control her emotions. For her part, Eda simply continued to offer support for Camilia, drawing comforting circles on her back with her hand as she adjusted herself to fully embrace her.

They stayed like that for a few minutes as Camilia got everything out of her system, letting herself cry out all the happiness and relief she was feeling as well as the stress and anxieties she had kept in for a long time.

When her tears had dried up, she gave her girlfriend a quick kiss then pulled away, gazing into her eyes with a smile that melted any worry from Eda’s heart.

“Thank you. For… for everything. I love you, Eda.”

Eda stayed in place, unable to look away from her partner’s eyes and their radiant glint of joy. “Of course, I love you too, sugar. What happened?”

“I think I just needed to…” Camilia paused for a second, then started fiddling with the hem of her shirt while she let her thoughts out. “I think I’d just kept too many emotions inside, and they needed to get out. But really, I just started crying when I let myself realize how happy I was. With you, and Luz, King and Amity too, I just realized how happy it made me to be here. So thank you.

“You said, that night after our first date, that you were very lucky to have met people that helped you find your place in the world, that made you feel like you belonged. And I said it then, too, but now I am certain. I was just as lucky. To have met you, to have had Luz. I’ve never been happier to be anywhere. So thank you.”

Camilia buried her face on Eda’s chest, not to hide her tears but to fully accept the joy and warmth she felt by being with the person she loved. Eda just kept embracing her, slowly stroking her head with a smile that radiated her love and fondness. They sat there, neither of them sure for how long, simply happy and complete in each other’s company, knowing that was where they both belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! It's finished! This epilogue only took me longer than the rest of the fic to write x3  
> Hope y'all enjoyed it and I'd love to hear any thoughts y'all had!  
> (Also translation note, "Te queremos" is kinda like "we love you", in my experience typically used more for family than romantic love.)
> 
> It was cool to do something like this for the first time tbh, I might try to write some more fics in the future. And I was super happy to see all the positive reactions people had!  
> Anyway I shouldn't add anything more here, the chapter's already probably way too long lmao. Thanks so much for reading!


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